mixed pickles

Culture Warrior: 3 Rules of Child Assassin Movies – Child assassins are quite different from the overall category of child killers. And while two recent films in two subsequent spring movie seasons that feature child assassins, Kick-Ass and Hanna, hardly constitute a trope as far-reaching as child killers in horror films, they do seem to be rising with their own rules of representation that constitute a possible emerging trend of their own.

An exegesis of sexual subtext in “Predator.” – An excerpt from Sir J. Thurgood Snorpington-Pittwickett’s classic “Sexual Tyrannosaurus: ‘Predator’ and the masculine struggle with homosexual self-identity,” first published in the 1988 Journal of Psychosexuality and Cinematical Hermeneutics 6, p. 122-254. (via)

Best and worst animated characters, explained – "Gnomeo and Juliet" is the latest CGI film to feature hideous protagonists. An expert explains how to do it right: Shannon Tindle, an Emmy-winning character designer who's worked on "Coraline," "How to Train Your Dragon" and numerous Dreamworks-animated projects.

Loving the Bad – An Interview with Frankie Latina and Sasha Grey on Modus Operandi
"Any director who shoots a grindhouse film without exquisite, triumphant, dangerous, and naked women is doing a disservice to the genre and should move into a different field."
by Matthew Sorrento

Something That Festers – The Silence of the Lambs, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, and the Visual Pleasures of Horror
"We're drawn to and fascinated by horror because the genre reminds us that we have both outsides and insides, skin and guts, eyes and gray matter, ideas and appetites."
by Jesse Stommel

Girls on Film: Redefining Date Movies – The dating world is a hideous business. We're taught that to woo, to romance, to love; the man must cover his beloved in all manner of monetary adoration and personal torment. He must buy overpriced roses, grandoise gifts and wallet-burning meals every Valentine's Day. He must take his beloved, or hope-to-be-beloved, to romantic comedies and five-tissue romances. On the flip side, the woman is expected to groom, to woo (though all bets are off when the fish is caught) and to offer up sexual spoils to show her appreciation (though not required). If she's super-swell, she might give the guy a day off now and then to partake in his burly deeds and see his manly friends, but ultimately, she just has to keep him marginally entertained … and rule him with an iron fist of feminity.
And it all starts with the "date movie."

Winona Ryder Forever – "Is it possible we will always be obsessed with Winona Ryder? If she keeps doing films such as Black Swan, the answer is yes." Wunderschönes Interview-Portrait von Alex Pappademas

Now Imagine Thor Was White… – "But man oh man, it is some intensely racist shit when you are mad that a black dude got cast as a tertiary character in a CGI popcorn movie based off of a COMIC BOOK."

The Evolution of Keira Knightley – To celebrate the the release of William Monahan's directorial debut London Boulevard, we're taking a jaunt through the back catalogue of Keira Knightley. The Brit superstar's career has so far seen super-sized blockbusters, Oscar recognition and period frocks aplenty.

The return of the pixie crop – Big hair is for little girls. These days, the coolest cut of all is a chic pixie crop, as worn by Emma Watson and, er, Katie Waissel

The golden age of documentary – From Kevin MacDonald's examination of the YouTube phenomenon to a cab ride with Osama bin Laden's former bodyguard, cheap technology is allowing film-makers to stretch the form as never before

Interview: Melissa Silverstein – Melissa Silverstein is the brains behind the blog Women and Hollywood, a feminist perspective of how gender works in the movie industry.